APPENDIX.

[To the kindness of Professor Skeat of Cambridge I am indebted for the following compend, wherein the scientific grounds upon which a theoretical rule for the silent H might be constructed, are perspicuously exposed, while a practical view of the case is also taken. A list of words with doubtful H’s was submitted to Professor Skeat, and the comments of this foremost of British etymologists are a reply to the question: What reasons can be found for the silencing of the H’s?]

Of course the etymology has much to do with it, so has accent, so has rapidity of speech, so have individual notions.

(1.) Etymology.

There are four principal H’s—English, French, Latin, and Greek.

As a rule, pronounce all but the French; and, of these, all but some words of Latin origin.

Examples. English—HILL, HOG, (though this is properly Welsh), HUNT. The h should never be omitted, being an original aspirate of great strength.

French—herb, hospital, hostler, &c. By rule, the h should be silent; but the word herb, in particular, has become so completely Anglicised that to hear an h in it is common. So also habit, haughty, hearse, human; habit and human being counted as Latin.

The H was sometimes omitted in the fourteenth century.

“As wrtis [wortis] of erbis soone thei shul falle doun.” Wycliffite version of Psalm xxxvii. 2, (earlier version).

“Thei schulen falle doun soone as the wortis of eerbis.” Wycliffite version of Psalm xxxvii. 2, (later version).

But French words from Frankish, not Latin sources, take h, as hamlet, halbert, harass, hatchet; together with proper names, as Henry, Hubert. So also harness, a French word, but not of Latin origin.

Latin—The h is commonly sounded, as horrid. But honorary and honorarium follow the French word honour, and commonly omit h.

Greek—The h is important, as in history, hexagon, and should be sounded.

(2.) Accent.

Accent often drowns the h. Thus history takes h, but historical is usually istorical. To find this out, do not go by what people say they say (which is one thing), but by what you hear them say, which is a very different matter. Compare hebdomadal, hallucination, hereditary, hiatus, histrionical, hippopotamus, hexameter, hieroglyphic, histology, horizon, hidalgo, homœopathy, horticulturist; in all these, the h is very weak.

(3.) Rapidity.

Very common English words, as have, here, has, him, her, his, are pronounced ’ave, ’ere, in rapid speech. This will be denied stoutly by many who do so every day of their lives, especially in particular combinations. Much depends on the position of the word or the accent.

Ex. Did you see ’im go?

Answer. I saw him, but not her.

It is always dropped, at the present day, in the old word hem (Chaucer), meaning them.
Ex. I saw ’em go.

(4.) Individual Notions.

Particular people have particular opinions (frequently wrong ones) as to how words should be pronounced.

I think if you exercise your ear carefully, you will find it a better guide than written statements.

[1]. English in England. By R. Grant White. In the March number of the Atlantic Monthly Magazine, 1880.

[2]. The Greek Classic Poets, 1834.

[3]. The Sacred Books of the East (1879). The Upanishads, page lv.

[4]. Early English Pronunciation, with especial reference to Shakespeare and Chaucer. By Alex. J. Ellis, F.R.S.

[5]. Kritishes Lehrgebändes der englischen Sprache. Leipzig.

[6]. Merchant of Venice, Act i., Scene 3.

[7]. Persons who consider themselves experts in the art of aspirating might do well to procure “Harry Hawkins’ H Book; showing how he learned to aspirate his H’s,” and put their aspirative faculties to a crucial test, by reading aloud the story of “The Hairy Ape.” The little book cannot be too warmly recommended as a practical and amusing method of learning to aspirate.

[8]. See Skeat’s Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. Oxford University Press, 1880.

[9]. The following gentlemen kindly furnished the writer with an account of their habitual pronunciation of words in which the silent H is implicated:—Mr Matthew Arnold; Mr Samuel Brandram; Mr Robert Browning; Rev. Derwent Coleridge; The Very Rev. the Dean of Chichester; Right Hon. W. E. Forster; His Grace the Duke of Richmond and Gordon; Professor Huxley; Mr Henry Irving; Sir Wilfrid Lawson; His Eminence Cardinal Manning; Sir James Paget; Mr F. E. Sandys (Public Orator of Cambridge); Right Hon. Lord Selborne; Right Hon. Lord Sherbrooke; Rev. C. H. Spurgeon; Very Rev. Dean Stanley; Mr Edmond Yates; and a distinguished member of the present Ministry (1880).

[10]. A Higher English Grammar. By Alex. Bain, LL.D., Professor of Logic in the University of Aberdeen.

[11]. Note (by Professor Skeat).—There is a ridiculous notion that u, forsooth, must precede GH. Hence thogh, rightly pronounced with o, is actually spelt though. Laghter, rightly pronounced with a (as in Italian a), is spelt laughter. Through is quite correct: ou as in soup. Spellings like caught, slaughter, are not only mistakes for caght, slaghter, but the misspelling has affected the pronunciation. Gh is a comic question altogether.

[12]. According to Carpenter’s Physiology, to pronounce TH, “the point of the tongue is applied to the back of the incisors, or to the front of the palate.” Such injunctions as these are doubtless strictly followed out by foreigners learning English, the unavoidable result naturally being that thin and then become approximately “sin” and “szen.”

[13]. This only applies to occasions on which they indulge in English speech. The Anglo-Saxon WH (written Hw) had formerly a more palatal sound, and while passing into ʍ had a tendency to become f. In the Aberdeenshire dialect it has remained f; e.g., fan, far = when, where. Many such eccentric permutations are amusingly anaglyptographed in that monument of the “Aberdeenshire Doric,” Johnny Gibb o’ Gushetneuk. (Ed’bro’: D. Douglas.)

[14]. Grammaire Historique (1867). Par Auguste Brachet.

[15]. “Je n’aime pas les H aspirées: cela fait mal à la poitrine; je suis pour l’euphonie.”—Voltaire.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

  1. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling.
  2. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.
  3. Re-indexed footnotes using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter.